Gait abnormalities may be a result of a variety of disorders. Drop foot includes one form of gait abnormality associated with a dropping of the forefoot. Users suffering from drop foot may have limited mobility with movement of the toes and ankle, causing the foot to hang down and turn inward. These users may be unable to lift their toes during a gait cycle, and therefore may drag their toes while taking a step. This may cause difficulty with walking, and users may often stumble and fall. Additionally, users may compensate for the dragging by bending the knee to lift the foot higher than normal.
Drop foot may also cause the inability for users to control the falling of their forefoot after striking their heel to the ground while walking. The foot will slap down after the heel has touched the ground, causing a condition known as “slap foot”. This condition is caused by impairment of the user's dorsiflexor muscles, which are used to lift the forefoot during a gait cycle.
Drop foot may be caused by various muscular and/or neurological disorders. Users suffering from muscular dystrophy, polio, diabetes, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and established compartment syndrome may experience drop foot. Additionally, this gait abnormality may be a result of spinal cord injury or brain injury diseases including stroke, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. Nerve damage, for example, from a herniated disc, fractured pelvis, hip dislocation, and knee dislocation may affect a user's peroneal nerve and also cause the user to develop drop foot.
Conventional treatment of drop foot, and other gait abnormalities, includes a brace to stabilize the ankle and toes while walking. A brace may hold a user's toe upward while taking a step and prevent dragging of the toes. Such braces may include a frame and an attachment member. The frame may be disposed around a user's leg or ankle while the attachment member connects a user's shoe to the frame, to hold the toes upward.
Conventional braces may produce a limited range of motion for a user. Such braces may hold a foot in a horizontal or 90 degree position with a leg. Therefore, the user may not be able to rotate the foot while taking a step and lift off with the toes when stepping forward. Instead, the user may step down and lift off with a flat foot. Additionally, conventional braces may be bulky and require attachment to a particular shoe type. This may limit the wardrobe the user may wear with the brace, and may cause some users to not wear the brace.
The present disclosure overcomes at least some of the problems associated with traditional braces.